Alex Eala, seeded 31st, braces for potential clash with Gauff at Indian Wells

Alex Eala earns a first-round bye at the Indian Wells and could face former doubles partner and world No. 4 Coco Gauff in the Round of 32 when main draw action heats up this week.

The 20-year-old Eala is bracketed in the top half of the draw that also has world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Grand Slam champions Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu, to name a few.

Seeded 31st, Eala awaits her Round of 64 opponent with the winner between 2024 Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska and two-time Grand Slam doubles champion Zhang Shuai.

Like Eala, Gauff also secured a first-round bye and is set to face either wildcard bet and 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu or a yet-to-be-revealed qualifier.

If both Eala and Gauff are successful in their first matches, they could meet again for the first time since their quarterfinals meeting at the Dubai Tennis Championships two weeks ago where Gauff prevailed, 6-0, 6-2.

Other potential opponents for Eala in the coming rounds are 21st seed Diana Shnaider, 14th seed Linda Noskova, world No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova, No. 17 Clara Tauson, and seventh seed Jasmine Paolini.

Eala slipped a notch to No. 32 in this week’s rankings after taking a brief respite after the Dubai tournament.

Her Round of 64 berth has already assured her of a $36,110 paycheck (around P2.1 million) in this WTA1000 tournament that has a total prize commitment of $9.4 million.

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